Today’s Links: December 15, 2011

OPINION

CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN & DARREN GOODE: “Does Politics Trump Science in the Obama W.H.?”
“President Barack Obama turned it into a campaign-trail talking point: He would end the Bush administration’s’“war on science.’ But four years later, as the White House shifts into reelection mode, Obama is facing the same attacks he leveled against his Republican predecessor: He is putting politics ahead of science.”

IAN MACKENZIE: “Just How Fast is the Information Age Moving?”
“THERE’S A GOOD chance you don’t know anyone who’s not on Facebook. After all, it currently has 800 million users, and projections based on historical data of its growth (it’s been expanding in a linear fashion) suggest that it will hit 1 billion by July 2012. That’s roughly 1/7th of the world’s population.”

VICE MAGAZINE: “North Korean Labor Camps” (VIDEO & ARTICLE)
“And so began the worst 48 hours of my life, which ended with the FSB (the modern version of the KGB), the local militia, plainclothes police, and assorted thugs removing us from the train and placing us into custody. Finding myself wishing for Billy and his ability to effortlessly sort things out, I texted him that the FSB had detained us. He replied, ‘Of course they have. Just leave.'”

NEWS

INDUSTRY – Manufacturing Can Thrive, But Struggles For Respect
“America’s debate over manufacturing has escalated in the face of stubbornly high unemployment and the realization that younger workers lack some of the basic skills necessary to hold down a job in an assembly plant or a fabrication shop. Gillette is facing that issue in part by putting interested factory workers through a technical training program at a nearby state university.”

BLACK MARKET – Over 100 Die, Dozens Sickened by Toxic Booze
“Illegal liquor operations flourish in the slums of urban India and among the rural poor who can’t afford the alcohol at state-sanctioned shops. The hooch, often mixed with cheap chemicals to increase potency and profit, causes illness and death sometimes – and occasionally mass carnage.”